Working with Wokingham

Our latest recruit, Jim Demeza, is certainly hitting the ground running. Hot on the heals of his work with Actis for their AIM 2011 conference, his first project win was launched this week. Working closely with the design team here, he steered us to victory on the the tender to create a new identity for Wokingham Council’s new independent local authority trading company, Optalis. As a local authority trading company (LATC), and only the second independent LATC to be formed in the UK, Optalis will be able to operate competitively in the adult social care market, providing it’s customers with more choice and greater control in their support services and spend. It will also allow those who are not eligible to receive help from the Council, to buy services privately. The final design was created with the assistance of the Sensory Needs team to reflect a bright, friendly and modern organisation. The design can be viewed on our 05/11 news page here.

Designer Mark Stevens, who worked on the branding said:

"Transferring existing adult social care services into an LATC offers those in need of care, a greater choice over their support arrangements, allowing their needs to be met in a more individualised way. Working closely with the Optalis team, we used colour to communicate the importance of these 'new choices for living' and backed it up with a succinct tagline, to create a warm, approachable marque for an auspicious new scheme."

Design Week took an interest in what we had done too, so if you are a subscriber you can view the article here.

We are currently in the process of working on the brand guidelines, and a range of templates, to help them save money on both their internal and external marketing, whilst also ensuring they retain brand consistency across all collateral.

Here's the official Optalis Press Release:

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OPTALIS TAKES OVER THE REINS OF WBC’S ADULT SOCIAL CARE PROVIDED SERVICES

Vulnerable adults with a disability, and older people who need care and support, will have more choice from today (June 6) as Wokingham Borough Council launches Optalis; its new adult social care company.

Optalis, which is wholly council-owned, has today taken control of all the borough council’s adult social care provided services. This includes day centres, employment services, home care, residential care and supported housing services, as well as brokerage and support and sensory needs services.

The council was prompted to set up a separate company by a combination of its policy decision to become an increasingly commissioning authority and the national policy of Putting People First, which allows adults who are entitled to personal budgets to choose who provides their social care, rather than being told by social services. This has meant people have more choice and control about how they spend their budget. Whilst this is extremely positive for the borough’s residents it has meant that the councils’ long-established care services couldn’t be guaranteed to be able to survive.

Moving to a separate company allows those services to better manage their costs and to better respond to personalised care needs, ensuring they will continue to be attractive to personal budget holders. It will reduce operating costs and overheads, and grant new flexibilities and freedoms that are not possible as part of a council set up. As Optalis is now operating competitively in the social care market, it will be available to those who previously may have wanted to buy Council’s services, but were not able to because of legal restrictions on the council selling its services. The launch of Optalis will therefore offer more choice than in the current market. This way our existing and future clients will get the best of both worlds – having the choice of a proven high quality service and also one that has freedom from public sector requirements.

Stuart Rowbotham, strategic director commissioning, said: “Doing nothing and remaining as we were was simply not an option. In order for our services to flourish and to continue to provide our excellent services to the public, we needed to be able to trade and contend with both established and emerging market competitors. Transferring our in-house adult social care services into a new company is our best option for doing this. We have invested £250,000 to set up this exciting new company which the council will recoup over time.

“We expect Optalis will be able to grow and develop new and improved services, including those that are currently missing from the social care market and are in demand. This will, in turn, offer more support options and activities that until now vulnerable adults haven’t been able to access.”

Cllr Julian McGhee-Sumner, executive member for health and wellbeing, said: “Our key priority is to sustain and improve the services we already provide and to give continuity and high quality support to the people who already use our services as well as those who may do so in future. Transferring our services gives us the best chance of achieving this.“

Mike Walsh, managing director at Optalis, said: “We have been working hard to ensure the transition period is smooth and those customers already receiving a social care service should not notice much difference day-to-day other than the change of organisation name and image. Most importantly, people should continue receiving support from staff that they know and are happy with because the council staff delivering the service have been transferred to Optalis. Those vulnerable adults who receive a service from us will experience greater choice and control over their support arrangements; and the risk of disruptions to their service or a loss of service altogether will be far lower. It’s an exciting time to launch Optalis.

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air freshener...

We've just helped our BID team at Better Bankside, who teamed up with Vertical Garden specialists Treebox , Network Rail and Skanska, to bring a 35metre length of green wall to Bankside. Across the street from the Hop Exchange on Southwark Street, the original hoarding has now been transformed from a hard and flat surface to a lush green living wall of ivy, incorporating graphics by to the point.

The area around the Borough High Street / Southwark Street junction sees high traffic volume and as a result can often experience poor air quality. The living wall is being monitored by students from Imperial College, London, to see what impact the planting has on local air quality.

The Mayor of London launched the London Air Quality Strategy in late 2010. Better Bankside hope that this small contribution within Bankside will provide valuable learning and practice that can be replicated elsewhere in London. The living wall also helps to increase the amount of green space in the neighbourhood, again helping achieve Mayoral targets of increasing green cover in London by 5% by 2025.

Valerie Beirne of Better bankside signs off "We know it will help make Bankside become a thriving place to work, visit and live!"

Preserving trust...

The signs of recovery are clearly here. The new clients we are currently working with are innovative, driven and hunting out the opportunities that exist in the changing landscape of their local, and global, economy. We've had a lean couple of years and seen private sector work drop off while public sector continued and then the recent reversal as private sector picks up and public sector halted slightly more  immediately than expected!

However, with our broad spread of sectors, and balanced split between public and private sector work, we have come through these tough times stronger and in a position to still offer the breadth and depth of experience that is essential to help drive the visions of these new businesses forward. Whether it's helping in-house teams set up systems and templates using Microsoft Office to communicate consistently and on brand, helping businesses evolve through accessible change management programmes or naming and creating new identities and branding for start-ups, our skill sets are again being challenged and enjoyed by our clients.

With the naming exercises we've undertaken recently, the unsuccessful search for related URLs demonstrates why so many companies are opting for made up or mis-spelt names. But the name is an integral part of the brand so a little more lateral thinking relating to meaning and how the name might be developed as an identity helps create a stronger more effective brand. 

This month, we looked at two new business wins that are capitalising on changes and requirements within their environments. Both early stage but already the feedback that design is helping them to differentiate and raise awareness of their services is great. Efront started with the naming exercise that has worked on both the meaning front and from a visual perspective with the 'Pevara' solution. But beyond naming, the fact that we challenged both companies preconceived ideas, can look at their vision and requirements objectively and that they listen and adapt, is testament to the preservation of partnership relationships built on trust.  Long may this continue. Feedback from our contact at Alpheus sums it up nicely - thanks Robert:

 “Working with TTP has been a refreshing change from other deign agencies with whom we have worked in the past.  TTP are more inclined to spend time understanding and challenging our ideas and assumptions by getting under the skin of what is important to our business.  Simply re-hashing old ideas is not an option, but thinking laterally and understanding the big picture is second nature.  This process has allowed us to, collectively, reach the desired goal, and, as such, we have already recommended them to our customers!”

You can find out more about FLOW:Coherence from Alpheus here: www.flowcoherence.alpheus.com

targeting new business... bring on the fun

With tothepoint’s ‘I Shot The Serif’ app game taking the world (well, North America and Germany) by storm, our thoughts turn to what other innovative methods of drumming up new business have been doing the rounds lately. Here, we provide some thoughts on how successful they can be for design firms looking to expand or just get some work through the door.

We all want to work with well-known companies that do great work, but it’s the companies that aren’t well-known and have poor branding that can be the easier win, discovering the benefits of good design. These companies often rely on PR for their exposure so reading the national (rather than design) press will help you research and find these opportunities (obviously, still read the design press for inspiration!). Some quick searching online can reveal the in-house people who generate these releases so, with access to their email or postal addresses, you can send a bespoke letter or email that touches on how they could improve their profile and how you can help them achieve this. With overloaded inboxes we find a well-crafted letter is more often read and remembered, helping you to start a dialogue. But don’t expect them to ring you – you need to follow up with a call.

With email you can also take the volume approach, as long as you don’t mind the possibility of clients thinking you’re spamming them. If you buy mailing lists for specific sectors you can tailor the emails with appropriate case studies of your clients in this sector and hopefully show the benefits, or better still the ROI, you have achieved for these clients. Always play to your strengths rather than seek new challenges in new sectors – the grass isn’t always greener and clients like to feel you understand their business so there isn’t such a steep learning curve.

Multi-mailing ('multi' so you can manage it, 'mass' you won’t) is a very effective route to getting your message in front of a large number of prospects for very little outlay. However, be warned. Some people can get quite touchy about it so, if you have the resources or you can afford a new business agency, a cold call to the intended recipient before sending an email can break the ice and make it more likely they will read it.

Allocating time to new business is essential and you shouldn’t stop when you are busy. Plan ahead for those quiet times. A good database (or CRM system) will help you to develop and manage a mailing list of the people you speak to. Make sure you ask them if they are happy to receive materials like a monthly newsletter. This way, if they haven’t got work now, you are more likely to be in contact at the right time when they do have work. Just make sure your materials aren’t only about you but also offer useful advice and insight into ideas that may benefit them.

The best way of engaging with prospective new clients is, of course, by allowing them to find you and this is where keeping your website dynamic, blogging and other social media marketing techniques come in to place along with PPC and SEO. Some people say “clients won’t find an agency by searching online” and they may be right. It’s quite unlikely that a marketing director will Google “branding agency UK” and think “oh look, there’s half a dozen, I’ll get them in to pitch!” But think a bit laterally. If you were thinking of rebranding, which steps might you need to go through first? Maybe some research into employee engagement? Is there actually more going on than a simple rebrand (if there is such a thing!); perhaps the client is merging – would ‘managing change’ be further up their agenda?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself. Then you need to consider what your audience, if looking for help with these issues, might search for. Make sure that you have an opinion on these things and that your opinion can be found by writing white papers on these subjects and submitting them to the right places including your own blog with some good SEO content and techniques.

But this by itself is probably not enough. As Adam Whittaker, of new business agency RSW, explores “The number of people you probably could engage with is huge, tens of thousands, and for all these people you need PPC, SEO and a good blog. But there are probably only a few hundred who are your absolute priority and for these people, you need to be SURE they know where you are, which is where the integration of social marketing with one-to-one marketing really comes into its own.” He goes on the explain how, by using Twitter and LinkedIn to broadcast your thoughts to your target audience, it’s possible to significantly raise awareness of your firm so that clients know how to contact you, as and when they are in the market.

“And that” Adam sums up, “is what you really want to do – make sure YOUR firm is the one that first springs to mind whenever they have a need for the service you specialise in.”

Gemma Went, Founder of Red Cube Marketing, has worked with a number of design firms on their social media activity “Many dismiss it as something that doesn’t apply to them, but after illustrating where people they want to engage with are online and how easy it can be to strike up a conversation with them, they tend to be more comfortable about investing time in it.” When asked which social media platforms tend to work well for new business, one came out on top, “The blog is a fantastic tool for ‘showing’ people you’re great at what you do, which is opposite to the website which ‘tells’ people. With a blog you can showcase credibility and establish thought leadership, something that can be extremely powerful for any design agency. It also gives people the opportunity to engage with you and get into hearty debates, another great way of illustrating your knowledge. Partner this with a Twitter profile and LinkedIn activity to find people you want to engage with and you have a powerful marketing tool.” Gemma continues, “I also find it levels the playing field. In the past the bigger agencies had more money to invest in advertising, a PR agency and such like. Social media doesn’t yield better results by investing more, a small business can create a blog or engage with people on Twitter in exactly the same way as a bigger firm, getting the same results, at the same cost.”

At tothepoint we welcome digital communication but balance this with more traditional techniques to keep us in front of our clients, like our printed desktop calendar, we’re there in front of them all year. But I can certainly say our fun iPhone app has opened some new doors we weren’t expecting… give it a go on our website or download the free iPhone app: http://www.tothepoint.co.uk/more/fun/shoot_the_serif/ and good hunting…

note: this article also appears in Design Week: Feb 2011

Words in the clouds

So how was 2010 for you? It was certainly full of variety for us! Looking back across all our news posts of the year (you can see them all on one page here) we certainly dealt with a wide variety of projects and clients - and whilst many have struggled during this difficult year, we seem to have kept ourselves pretty busy each month.

As a nice visual way to try to make sense of all that news we've create a 'word cloud' - built from all the news we sent out to you in 2010 (word sizes are based on how many times that word was mentioned). As you can see, 'new' featured quite heavily - which we take as a positive sign!

You can also see another word cloud taken from all our 2010 blogs (and just in case you missed any of them, they can all be read below!)

Although we'd love to take all the credit for the painstaking creation of these, we actually used a nice free service called 'Wordle' - http://www.wordle.net - this site lets you copy and paste any text (or import an RSS feed) and build a word cloud image from it - letting you tweak the layout and colours till you're happy. Give it a go - it's a nice way to add meaning and typography* to something that could be a little dry otherwise. Of course, for more customised ways to design and visualise your data, just give us a call.

We look forward to seeing what words define 2011 - in the meantime, we'd love to hear about the 'keywords' that defined 2010 for you.

Ben Jackson, Head of Digital Media

*Oh and talking of typography, did we mention our latest little free game and iPhone app..?

Appy we tried

'I Shot the Serif' was our first proper foray into the design and development of a new app for the iPhone - here's some of the things we learned in the process.

As part of a loose campaign which started with the design of our latest calendar (it's a bit of an institution with us – this year we're focusing on simple typography and the idea of bringing design terms to a wider audience) we had the idea of a purely type based game to explain the difference between serif and sans-serif typefaces.

An original idea by one of our designers, Mark Stevens (and with a nod to Tom Gabor) it was then turned into the full game by Ben Jackson our Head of Digital. As soon as we started playing it ourselves we knew it would translate brilliantly onto the iPhone. From initial idea to seeing the app appear on iTunes, it took a little over a month – but that's including the week and a half of nervous nail-biting while we waited to see if Apple thought it met their strict (and mysterious) guidelines. We got it out just in time for our monthly Christmas news update – the timing couldn't have been better.

With little UK coverage we were surprised when it was picked up by a widely read blog in the US and within a few days we had a huge increase in hits to our site (with visitors playing the web version of the game and then heading off to the App Store to download the iPhone version and plenty also browsing the rest of our site). This week, a couple of influential design based sites in Canada picked up on the game through Twitter and again traffic has increased significantly. Because of all this, hits to our site in January are up around 400-500% on our month average.

As a game it is quick and fun (and pretty addictive if all the tweets are to be believed!) but with the increase in traffic, we are now getting work enquiries. These are coming from overseas – for branding where people have investigated our site after playing or passing on a link to the game (we've had inquiries from Moscow and Brazil in the last few days).

This was our first major experiment with app development and has so far proved to be quite a success. Because the core game was really quite simple, we were able to create an online (Flash based) version and then turn this into a fully fledged iPhone app too (if only the iPhone supported Flash - but that's a whole different discussion!). The outlay in time taken to develop the game was fairly negligible and has taught us a lot about the app creation process – aswell as the terrors of the notorious Apple review system. To be fair, they never rejected it - it was really just the tense moments wondering if the man from Cupertino would say 'yes!'.

It's great being able to hop onto Twitter and see people mentioning it and passing on the link - especially within the design community where it has naturally found a bit of a niche. Whilst certain news sites have kept the game buzzing around the world, we're starting to see Facebook as the most common place for people to hear about it and link to our site. This is very interesting as we've always assumed that as a smaller B2B company, Facebook isn't really for us – but perhaps it's time to re-assess this? (Our fledgling Facebook page starts here!)

I hope this positive feedback prompts other agencies to look at more than just Twitter and Blogs to generate flow to their site and interest in their own 'brands'. As this year's campaign theme continues to develop we'll certainly be looking into additional ideas, maybe there's even room for a sequel? 'Episode 2 - Revenge of the Serif'? Yeah, I bet you kern hardly wait.

I Shot the Serif - latest version (1.4) has just been approved for release, get it here

I Shot the Serif - Flash version can be played here

written by Ben Jackson, Head of Digital and Simon Hutton, Managing Director

note for Android owners, the Flash version plays pretty well on higher-end phones (Android 2.2) – try it here

where New York leads...

...does London follow?

After a brief visit to New York recently, there were a few things that struck me about the fast pace of life over there. It's historically been the case that, at least with new technology, where New York leads, we tend to follow a few years later – but is this still the case? And if it is, what might be headed our way?

Smarts

Even more than in London, it's clear to see that the 'smart phone' has really taken off over there, plenty of iPhone users, but lots of people using Android, Blackberry and Palm phones there too. Whilst the UK is still in the grip of iPhone fever, the US is starting to see much more competition within the smart phone market - with Android phones really starting to eat into Apple's early lead. Meanwhile, Blackberry seems to have left the confines of it's 'business only' reputation – mainly due to it's great instant messaging ('BBM') and it's physical keyboard.

And this proliferation of mobile internet users is having a knock on effect. I was very interested to see that QR codes (you know, those strange bar-code squares you've seen occasionally and always wondered what they were) have caught on in a big way over there, whilst they're still largely underused gimmicks over here. So, for instance, in the New York 'Time Out', many articles ended with a QR barcode – just point your phone at it, click and you're taken to the website containing further relevant information. I'm not entirely sure whether this is genuinely useful for users or just a symptom of the print industry feeling itself being left behind. But it was clear to see that on many large format posters, magazine articles and ads, prominent QR codes effectively work like 'read more buttons' leading to additional, up-to-date content online. I suspect we'll be seeing much more of these over here too as smart phone use becomes more commonplace.

Right place, right time

Another by-product of having more people with smart phones and 'always on' internet (apart from the constant barrage of emails, messages, tweets and Facebook updates, of course) is that these phones are 'location aware' – with built in GPS, our phones know exactly where we are.

This is obviously useful when browsing Google Maps, but it's spawned a new kind of social media too – location based. Handy if you want to tell people you're at a conference, or down the pub – just incase your friends or work colleagues are there too. But while we in the UK seem to be a little more reluctant to share such private information with the masses, location based services such as Foursquare, Gowalla and, to a lesser extent, the newer Facebook Places seem to have really taken off over there. Foursquare seems to be the current leader, being much more integrated into mainstream use, with brands such as Starbucks, Domino's, Time Out, New York Magazine, MTV and a host of other media companies, newspapers, bars, hotels and museums all using it as a new marketing channel, offering special offers to regular visitors.

The really interesting shift here is that, until now, the internet hasn't really concerned itself in any meaningful way with where we or our customers/visitors physically are. In a way, the power of internet marketing has been it's world-wide reach and it's ability to ignore specific location. Location based marketing brings things back to the importance of 'nearby' and, as long as our audience is willing to share their current location, gives us another, very important and relevant communication channel. As consumers, we're currently able to search for businesses near to us (either physically or online), but location based marketing offers businesses the opportunity to search for potential customers near to them. It's early days for this as a concept but, in New York at least, brands are getting excited about exploring it's possibilities.

It's interesting to see that while 'location' is being heralded as the 'next big thing' out in New York, hopping onto Foursquare over here is still a fairly empty experience for now (or maybe I just don't have enough cool friends in the know?). And while Facebook is as busy as ever, I'm not seeing many 'Places' check-ins yet – perhaps this is because there just aren't many advantages for those who do 'check-in' over here. For instance, after two check-ins at my local Domino's, I've been awarded 'Mayor' status on Foursquare – and the benefit of being Mayor is a free pizza every Wednesday! This would be great, if it wasn't for the fact that the local staff have never heard of this offer, or even of Foursquare itself – so I guess we have some catching up to do! The other reason it's still not made much of an impact is perhaps that culturally we're much more reticent to share such personal information. The denizens of New York seem much less worried about letting everyone know exactly where they are – whilst this provides marketers even more targeted data, it may of course result in unintended consequences - as the site 'pleaserobme.com' set out to highlight last year.

A Minority Report
 

Although not specific to New York, while I was out there, the new Microsoft 'Kinect' device launched to much fanfare and marketing hype (and was released not long after, over here). In short, it's a gaming device that allows you to interact without a controller – a little like the Nintendo Wii that's been around for years (just without the remote). So, apart from the obligatory dancing and fitness games, what's so special about this and why should it interest anyone not actually into gaming?

Well, in short, the technology is really quite amazing and it's light years beyond the giroscopes and motion sensors used in Nintendo's offering. Based on tech originally developed for the Israeli military, the device features multiple cameras (including infrared) – able to capture a whole room (and anyone in it) in 3D and in realtime. Once it recognises a person (yes, it has facial recognition), it's able to map their exact body movements – creating a 3D virtual skeleton model that can be replicated by an avatar on screen. This is similar to the technique of 'motion capture' used for movies such as Avatar and the character 'Gollum' in Lord of the Rings. And if that's not quite futuristic enough, it even features speech recognition too. All wonderfully techy (for more info on how it works, start here), but what impact will this have other than another variation on virtual ten-pin bowling? The initial games all look quite fun, but it's what the technology itself offers beyond the gaming applications that I find really exciting.

As is the way with new technology and the excitable IT crowd, people are already dissecting it and trying to find out how it works – and what else they can use it for. Remember the famous scene from Minority Report, where Tom Cruise manipulates a rather complicated computer interface just with swift hand movements (requiring special gloves to do so)? We all figured that was a good decade or two away. Well, Kinect has the potential to do all that right now (and no gloves required). Where touch screens have revolutionised the way we interact with our phones, it's really limited to smaller screens and in two dimensions only. So what does the future hold for this 3D motion control technology? Possibly a complete revolution in the way we interact with computers – finally doing away with the age old 'keyboard and mouse' user interface we've used since Xerox invented the idea 37 years ago (yes, it's that old and no, Apple didn't invent the idea). Am I getting carried away by a cheap gaming gadget? Perhaps, after all, there's still a few issues with accuracy and latency, but check out these first step experiments and imagine a future where kids laugh at the ancient idea of clunky and unintuitive keyboards, mice and even the touch screens we're so used to now. Unlike New York, I don't think that future's so far away.

hacking Kinect - experiments in realtime motion control:




(oh, and of course, where geeks experiment, Star Wars surely follows...)

Ben Jackson,
Head of Digital Media,
www.tothepoint.co.uk

On yer bike

Phew! It feels appropriate to be writing my first blog about a racing track as the past few weeks have been quite a whirlwind for me...

What started as a dream has grown into a full blown campaign and it’s with professional pride and personal interest that I want to write about the campaign to Save the Herne Hill Velodrome.

I have been a keen cyclist, racer and fascinated visitor to the Herne Hill Velodrome for many years now. However, this beloved landmark now faces closure due to deterioration and lack of funding, and with the country’s own Olympic moment just around the corner, it’s hard not to get sad at the prospect of the Velodrome closing forever.

The Herne Hill Velodrome is one of those rare things – an iconic landmark that’s in use and as relevant to it’s visitors today as it was in decades past. The oldest cycling track in the country, it was home to the 1948 Olympic Cycling Championships, with famous riders including Bradley Wiggins the three-time Olympic gold medallist, who began his competitive cycling career at Herne Hill. Today, it’s a favoured location for cycling enthusiasts the world over and local children alike, all training, riding and racing their way to a better time, fitter body or simply a fun day out. As I watch the children, including my own, gather for the various races and events made available to them, I hope and believe that there may be one, if not more, future Olympic champions among them.

With the threat of closure – and without forgetting Peter Cattermole and the unsung heroes who, over the last ten years, have kept the Velodrome alive – a new impetus was required. A group of us, led by Hillary Peachey, conceived the Save the Herne Hill Velodrome Campaign, with me in charge of the campaign’s identity, look and feel and of course all the materials. Many may think I can pull an identity out of a hat or cook up a campaign in my sleep but this was unlike anything else I’ve had to do in such a short time frame and with no budget. Fitting four days' work into a weekend, using matchsticks and only a handful of hours’ sleep later, I had produced the basics of a campaign including logo, website, stationery, posters, postcards, leaflets and helped with the Facebook page – branding and some content. Over the weeks that followed, I built on this with help on the campaign strategy and other materials including track banners, t-shirts, displays, stickers and badges as well as providing brand elements to third parties to produce their own materials.



One such party was Condor Cycles who believed so strongly in the campaign, that they devoted a large area of their stand at the Earls Court Cycle Show to help raise awareness to the wider cycling community.

It was great to work on something I felt so passionate about and personally connected to, and the collective enthusiasm and spirit kept me going during those sleep deprived weeks. I’m proud of the designs I produced and the message my work helped shape but, in a bizarre twist, I’m almost prouder of what’s happened since...

As a designer, I love what I do, but there’s something very special about people taking your designs and running with them. As this campaign is so personal to so many, taking ownership of the messaging is essential and creating a structure (with consistency across the various elements) gives people the tools to take it further and help grow the campaign. This is a true word-of-mouth, combined with social media, success story and the momentum the campaign now has, has really blown me away: we got widespread and heartfelt coverage in the country’s press including the Guardian, London Evening Standard and the Telegraph to name but a few. We’ve had BBC’s Newsround filming us, a tweet by none other than Stephen Fry (reaching his 1.8million followers), a hugely successful public meeting with over £70,000 pledged in support, backing by Tessa Jowell and a global Facebook following that now has over 4,600 friends.



To my family's amazement, I now even have knowledge of twibbons with Facebook profiles being updated to help show support for our campaign. I’ve learned more about the strength and spirit of communities and my own knowledge of how this can be harnessed and built on using today’s technology. After the whirlwind, sitting back to enjoy the fruit of our hard work to date and come up with ways to build on this success, I’m left with a smile on my face and a very warm feeling of satisfaction and achievement (or is that muscle cramp?). Make my day and show me it was all worth it – support us and pledge money at www.savethevelodrome.com.

Carl Ison
Branding and Design Strategy
carl@tothepoint.co.uk

Where the interiors come to life!

Our relationship with Newsprinters has been going steady now for over four and a half years. During this time we've concentrated on evolving their brand, from the identity and marketing materials through to onsite signage and internal wayfinding.

Our latest undertaking is to bring personality to their largest print plant in Broxbourne with the design and installation of interior graphics. Whilst Newsprinters as a business is setting the benchmark in their industry through state-of-the-art technology and a specialised workforce that is second-to-none, the building itself has suffered somewhat from being devoid of any character. Turning that to our advantage, we have literally treated the site as a blank canvas on which we can inject some fun and humour through 50+ wall graphics.

The project has been layered – starting with dividing the site into working zones and introducing colour coding that is translated through colourful walls and a co-ordinated internal wayfinding system. We are now putting the finishing touches to the next layer which applies a theme across the entire building that adds visual interest and provides a stimulating working environment. The concept is simple in its execution yet also thought-provoking for both employees and visitors.

Each graphic is centred around describing a working area or task and is titled 'Where the, Where we, Where it...' and so on... This straightforward, no-nonsense tone of voice is an integral part of their brand and reflects perfectly the people that work in this company, and this industry. Newsprinters' core aim is to simply be 'the best newspaper manufacturer in the world'. No corporate waffle, no long-winded mission statements, just straight to the point. Each 'strapline' is illustrated in a strong, bold and modern font and accompanied by an image of an object that then brings another meaning to that task/area, and in turn, adds a lighthearted element.

The paper reel storage area

The paper reel delivery area





















It has been refreshing to work with a client that is open to a creative solution and has the confidence to create a 'non-corporate' environment. Even from the initial brief, Newsprinters made it clear that the scheme should appeal directly to the employees, to provide an uplifting ambience in the surroundings in which they work. Much of the plant is windowless so bringing colour and visual stimulation was imperative. Alongside this, the graphics have to communicate to visitors, many of whom are groups of schoolchildren that take tours of the factory, and so far our humour seems to appeal to those who have seen the ideas.

The press hall

The press control area

We feel that we have fulfilled the potential of the project to the full – through our creative thinking and concept in providing an exciting environment that offers the unexpected but also brings a wry smile to those that see the theme unfold as they go from area to area within the huge plant. We have delivered a vibrant system through the use of various materials, bringing to life the environment in which the staff work, and all within a budget that could well have escalated when considering the sheer scale of the building and the amount of wall space available. We didn't get too carried away and installation takes place next month when the true results and benefits will be seen, and hopefully heard...

The logistics centre
The boardroom

Dragging politics into cool

I can't lie to you, I'm not the most politically intellectual account manager out there, but I do try and keep abreast of current issues the best I can. During the build up to the general election, the sometimes informative, rarely entertaining and generally repetitive leaders debates were earmarked as a key source of guidance in the build up to 'vote day'. But overall, the most memorable thing I took away from the Sky News coverage on 22nd April was some rather snazzy projection graphics shown on the Bristolian building after the big event was over. This technology is not a new phenomenon, but in my opinion, that didn't detract from the impactful nature of the medium. A series of video animations were shown, taking up the entire building in question, including a mix of logos, images, and culminating in the apparent destruction of the building itself. It certainly caught my attention.

Sky News Leaders Debate Projection News Final Edit from Projection Advertising on Vimeo.

Since then, tothepoint have been in talks with the company behind this often guerilla style marketing approach - Projection Advertising. The best way to get an idea of the potential scale achievable is to check out their site where you can be inspired by previous examples of their work. Our experience in animations lends itself perfectly to a partnership with such an agency - giving the client the opportunity to bring their brand to life on a huge scale.

Additional to the standard projection, there are interactive options including AdWall, AdTrace and AdFloor - a kind of animation which alters when you interrupt it. Clever stuff, which in it's simplicity, manages to really stand head, shoulders and sometimes literally metres above the standard competition of static large scale poster advertising.

Feel free to give us a call on 0207 378 6999 or email us to discuss how your brand could be at the cutting edge of experiential branding.